3D Printing Finish: Color Resist

General information

About dyeing with Color Resist

Color Resist is a dyeing finish achieved with the DyeMansion technology
and most specifically with the DM 60 dyeing machine. This finish gives
your 3D printed parts a matte look that resists friction. Thanks
to the post-printing treatment procedure we follow before applying
the Color Resist finish on your 3D parts, they get resistant enough
to be exposed to external conditions and they resist scratching and
rubbing. Moreover, you get a very stable and consistent color between
different production batches, which is great if you need to produce
an important amount of identical parts. The surface shows a uniform
color, with a very good quality.

If your 3D printed white Nylon PA12 parts are meant to be exposed to external
conditions for an extensive period of time, we recommend you to dye
them with this finish so as to avoid the unwanted “yellowing” color
alteration. Thanks to the Color Resist finish, your 3D printed parts
become high quality finished products, with great longevity.

Parts that are colored with DyeMansion technology are skin-safe. In addition,
the dye stuff and the additives allow us to achieve a high UV-resistance.
Some of our customers’ colored products like 3D printed glasses have
been used daily for more than two years and their colors are still
UV-stable and brilliant. Thus, the Color Resist finish is a great choice
if your part will often be exposed to UV light, and you want the color
to remain stable over time.

About DyeMansion

DyeMansion
is
a Germany-based company that offers a variety of high-volume finishing
systems for an easy ‘Print-to-Product’ workflow that transforms
raw 3D-printed parts into high-value consumer and industrial products.
With the ability to provide precision coloring and finish to the
most exact specifications, the DyeMansion technology is already
trusted by more than four-hundred customers, including leading
global manufacturers in diverse industries, such as eyewear, automotive,
retail, medical, and sports equipment. DyeMansion has quickly established
itself as the global leader in additive manufacturing finishing
systems, as it delivers high-volume production for anything from
luxury sunglasses to mission-critical automotive parts.

The process of dyeing with Color Resist finish goes as following:

Submerged in a water bath, the dye penetrates the plastic through a chemical
reaction under pressure and heat. The penetration depth is typically
0.2 mm and can even be increased using our intensive color solution.
No material is added and every surface is reached in the water bath.

Dyeing with Color Resist finish at Sculpteo

Keep in mind that the final appearance and color availability is determined
by your raw material. Meaning that
white parts (coming from SLS technology)
allow for the whole color spectrum and build the base for our unique
color database. On the other hand
Grey parts (coming from HP Multi Jet Fusion technology)
are more limited on darkish tones .
Through our
ordering platform
,
the available colors of the Color Resist finish you can apply on your
Nylon PA 12 parts are: blue, black, red, green and orange. Though,
if you want any of the following colors, you can
contact our Sales Team
for customizing your order: yellow, brown, pink, white, violet, navy,
bordeaux, antracite and stone gray.
The only color of the Color Resist finish you can apply on your HP
Multijet Fusion parts is black.

Technical Specifities

The maximum size for dyeing your models with the Color Resist finish is
limited by the physical size of the dyeing tank of the DM 60 machine.
Your designs must respect this maximum size in order to be dyed with
Color Resist finish. There is no minimum size for dyeing with
Color Resist finish.

Delivery time

Dyeing with Color Resist finish can extend the processing time by 1-3 days
on average, which means:

Express production: unavailable.

Standard production: minimum 5 to 7 days on average.

Economy production: unavailable.

Technical aspects to keep in mind when applying Color Resist finish
on a 3D printed part

The DyeMansion coloring solution is compatible with parts of every
geometry. Even very filigrane or complex parts get through the
coloring process without any problems. Submerged in a water bath,
the dyestuff penetrates the plastic through a chemical reaction
under pressure and heat. In this way the dye reaches spots that
cannot be colored homogeneously with painting. Due to the chemical
reaction that occurs between dye and material, the parts retain
their geometric properties.

We advise you though, to avoid hollowing your 3D printed parts, as
they might float inside the tank and not be colored homogeneously.
In addition, engraved parts with small depth of carving are likely
to get filled with ceramic powder during the procedure of sandblasting
that the parts go through. If an engraving is an essential part
of your design we recommend making them as deep as possible so
that they will be able to be cleaned out. To ensure a better powder
removal (thus a better detail visibility), the width of your details
must be at least as big as deep.

Color Resist finish gives your 3D printed plastic parts a matte look
with a very good quality. Neither raw or shiny, your object’s surface
is homogeneously colored so that the part gets a uniform and matte
look. Color Resist is the ideal finish to apply on objects that
you want to expose to external conditions, as it is particularly
resistant to scratching, friction and abrasion. Last but not least,
this finishing option is skin-safe, UV resistant and the
color between different production batches remains the same, which
is great if you need to produce an important amount of identical
parts.